


A Giving Kind

by gaboriks



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Power Imbalance, Selkies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-06
Updated: 2014-12-06
Packaged: 2018-02-28 09:06:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2726678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaboriks/pseuds/gaboriks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How could Tyler ever miss the ocean when he had Jamie?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Giving Kind

**Author's Note:**

> See end notes for all warnings.

Tyler remembers when Jamie brought him into the apartment the first time, back when the feeling of the breeze on his back still felt new and his legs still shook with the weight of his body. “My mom always told me that home is where the heart is, which, I guess is semi-relevant now?” Jamie had said, fumbling with the keys, “Because, uh, this looks like it’s going to be your home for a while? Sorry about the mess.”

 

Tyler had just nodded, wide eyed, overwhelmed, and more than a little stupid. He had been-- figuratively, literally?-- been swept from the sea and deposited in this strange world. With Jamie, the poor sucker who had taken in some guy he’d found roaming the beach. Tyler couldn’t believe his luck. He was blessed. 

 

He’d brought it up to Jamie, years later, when both their hair was getting gray and the kids had been let loose on the world, asking him why. Jamie stilled in bed, at first, before relaxing. He didn’t have what Tyler thought was a real answer, anything other than _“because you needed me”_ and _“I just knew”_. 

 

It didn’t help Tyler sleep any easier.

 

\---

 

There was always home, and then there was _home_.

 

Home was waking up with the dogs and drinking experimental protein shakes and watching hockey games. It was Jordie and later on, the kids. It was a routine. It was Jamie, with his soft voice and loud presence. It was the duties that came with being a proud hockey husband.

 

 _Home_ was with his mother and his sisters. It was the ocean. It was the moon and the smell of salt. The feeling of lightness, going in and out with the tide. It was his sealskin, which was like a constant hug. It was an open wound. He missed it a lot, but Tyler tended to keep that part to himself. Jamie didn’t like to hear about it.

 

Tyler remembered how his mother had always warned him of men from the land with sharp teeth who would eat him alive, almost, but she didn’t warn him about men like Jamie. Looking back, he didn’t know if she even could have. If anyone could have.

 

He kind of remembers The Day, as he as Jamie would call it in hushed whispers later, like it was yesterday. Maybe it was yesterday. The days seemed to run together now, but back then every sunrise and sunset seemed important and inspiring.

 

He was young and foolish, constantly nosing at the parameters of what was safe and what wasn’t. Tyler had known early on where he could leave the safe confines of his brothers and sister and hide his pelt, away from prying eyes. It was there he could investigate the bright lights that had seemed to always call his name. He knew which buildings tended to constantly have a revolving door of tenants, who wouldn’t really notice some swim trunks or a t-shirt missing here and there. He’d felt alive, back then, between the sea and the bars. He felt alive in a way that he hadn’t felt since.

 

His mother would look at him, grimly, when he’d come back home. Almost as if she could see the skin under the pelt, the distinctive red and purple of the fresh bruising of sex. He’d felt unclean, but in the best ways. “I hope you know what you are doing,” she would say, nipping at his head before dropping the subject.

 

Tyler honestly thought he did.

 

He doesn’t remember much about how his pelt was stolen. Tyler remembered walking back to the cove after an unsuccessful night at the bars, the sand crunching beneath his feet as he walked along the shoreline.

 

Looking back, Tyler could almost swear he remembered seeing Jamie at the bar, stupid haircut and all. The way his eyes seemed to follow every move, but at the time, there seemed to be bigger, more important fish in the sea. Tyler didn’t know what he needed back then, he always thought.

 

Tyler remembers being there, about to slip the familiar weight of his pelt on his shoulders, before somebody started yelling at him. He remembers a struggle, and all of a sudden Jamie, and then waking up later. Jamie had told him that some punk had taken “his coat”, and that it was amazing he managed to be crossing the beach at the same time. Tyler believed him completely. Tyler was lucky to have Jamie. Tyler was eternally in debt to Jamie.

 

Other than the occasional hushed whisper, always a reminder of The Day from Jamie to Tyler, it wasn’t talked about. Jordie, Jamie would explain, didn’t want to hear about the day his little brother met his husband. Tyler said he understood, like how he always said he understood the jokes in the dumb movies Jamie watched and why he couldn’t go into the safe in the guest bedroom.

 

(He didn’t understand, though.)

 

Jordie was another issue entirely. Tyler could never put his finger on why someone who was always so happy would be visibly distraught when he, of all people, entered the room. Jamie said not to worry about it; Tyler tried not to. Jordie was important to Jamie, so Jordie was important to Tyler.

 

“I’m sorry,” Jordie had once told Tyler, years after they had first met. “I just. I had no idea what any of us were getting into that night-”

 

“Sorry for what?” Tyler asked, confused.

 

Jordie looked heartbroken, but before he could say another word Jamie had entered.

 

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” He had said, hands clenched. Tyler tried not to worry about it. It was really no worth worrying about nothing.

 

\---

 

“Do you miss it there?” Jamie had asked once, almost like it was physically painful to ask. Almost as if he could also hear the sea call to Tyler, calling him home in a way it hadn't in decades.

 

“Where?”

 

“You know. The ocean.”

 

Tyler paused, looking at Jamie for a moment. Jamie looked older, now. Less like the shining knight who had rescued him all those years before. One thing was still obvious, though: that slight glimmer in his eye, almost like there was a secret there he could never quite reach.

 

“I do. I think I would miss you more, though.” It was what Jamie wanted to hear. He was too tired to say anything otherwise.

 

Jamie smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> WARNINGS: abusive relationship, dark fic, power imbalance, etc
> 
>  
> 
> thank you to my best bro conrad for looking over it :-*
> 
> kudos also to kay and kelly for turning me into the seguin/benn monster i am today
> 
>  
> 
> feel free to tweet at me either at @gaboriks or @androidladd!! always looking for new friends/enemies/frenemies


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